Setting the scene Authors: David Molden, Jean-Marc Faurès, C. Max Finlayson, Habiba Gitay, Joke Muylwijk, Lisa Schipper, Domitille Vallée, and David Coates We face unprecedented challenges of water management—how to use water sustainably to respond to the increasing demand for agricultural products in many areas and how to find practical solutions where water use has exceeded sustainable limits. We need both more solutions and innovative ways of looking for them. is assessment starts with the premise that there are ways to ensure economic and social development while satisfying the increas- ing needs for safer and more sustainable agricultural practices. Modern agricultural practices, including major investments in high-yielding plant varieties and farming systems using high inputs of agrochemicals and water, have enabled growth in world food production to outpace population growth and caused global food prices to fall. Increased water use for agriculture has benefited farmers and poor people globally. But there remains much unfinished business and many complex challenges for the agriculture sector: providing rural people with resources and opportunities to live healthy and productive lives, producing more and better quality food using less water per unit of output, applying clean technologies that ensure environmental sustainability, and contributing productively to local and national economies. And despite abundant food and lower food prices, the task of providing food security to all remains incomplete. At the beginning of the 21st century 850 million people in the world remain food insecure, 60% of them living in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and 70% of the poor live in rural areas. Many of these people live in regions where finan- cial and institutional resources and ill-adapted policies constrain agricultural and human development. In households responsibility for food security falls mainly on women, who receive insufficient attention in policymaking related to this basic need. 1 Agricultural water use supports life Artists: Jhun Jhun Jha and Hira Karn, Nepal IWMI Part 1 Ch1 final.indd 41 2/28/07 3:02:32 AM